My main concern with the nose of the bar wasn't safety it was that I don't want to punch the sprocket. Also I had thought about drilling holes for uprights but I'm a bit hesitant because I have a Tsumura bar and I'm not sure how much I could mess with it before it becomes detrimental to the bar. I had thought about using square uprights or solid round stock. The fact that I have neither in my metal pile and weight are why I chose the smaller round stock. I do have a bunch of aluminum squarish stock. It has a flange on one side for mounting beams too for railing. I may rebuild the main chassis using that. Also I'd Prefer keeping the felling dog on because this is my only saw. And for the extra 3/4" (I finally measured it) it wouldn't be worth it to me. Then I would have to rebuild the frame as my existing won't allow another 3/4" outward on the uprights. I'm goi g to run it and see how it works. I'm sure at some point I'll want something larger. But that's if I can get ahold of a 80cc+ saw also.
Regards-Carlo